1907.] Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. 321 



Xiphoscelidus lugubris, Pering., 



Plate XLVIL, fig. 4. 



Trans. S. Afric. Phil. Soc, iv., 1888, p. 105. 



Male : Black, with the elytra rufescent-brown, and having on each 

 side a discoidal, black, sub-velvety patch ; head and clypeus deeply 

 punctured, clothed with moderately dense, long, flavescent hairs ; 

 antennal club very long ; prothorax shagreened and clothed with 

 partly appressed, long, but not very dense, flavescent hairs ; scutellum 

 scabrosely punctate, glabrous ; elytra elongated, narrowed behind, 

 not sinuate laterally, plane above, declivous laterally, not costate nor 

 punctate striate, but having series of short, equi-distant, erect, black 

 bristles ; the mesothoracic episterna are visible, but are not flush 

 with the humeral part of the elytra ; the propygidium is only partly 

 covered by the elytra, and their apical edge overhangs the triangular, 

 vertical, but slightly convex pygidium ; the abdomen is compressed 

 laterally owing to the very great development of the hind femora, 

 which are nearly as broad as long ; owing to the great development 

 of the thighs, the metasternal epimera project strongly beyond 

 the non-sinuate elytral fold, the short, hind tibiae have the inner 

 angle produced into a conspicuous, hamate inner process which has 

 absorbed the upper spur, the lower one only being left, and it is very 

 slender ; the inner spur of the anterior tibiae is long and slender ; all 

 the tarsi are long, and the joints very spinose. The shape of the 

 clasps of the genital armature is similar to that obtaining among the 

 Pachypodini of the Sub-Family Mclolonthince. 



Female : Completely black, and with the sub-velvety discoidal 

 band on each side of the elytra always conspicuous ; clypeus as in 

 the male, but slightly more narrowed near the base ; prothorax also 

 like that of the male, but with long, bristly hairs laterally ; elytra 

 more sinute laterally than in the male, but not uncovering the edge 

 of the coxae, slightly ampliated thence to the posterior part where 

 they are, if anything, slightly wider than at the base, slightly 

 depressed on each side of the suture in the anterior part, and having 

 a distinct ridge running from the shoulder to the apex, the humeral 

 callus alone is punctured, and the seriate hairs are smaller than on 

 the male, and greyish ; pygidium and abdomen almost glabrous ; 

 pectus briefly pubescent, the pubescence greyish, legs normal. The 

 species was originally described from one $ example. 



Length 9-11 mm. ; width 5 mm. 



Hah. Cape Colony (Stellenbosch). 



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